FORMER West Midlands Police officers might have to be lured out of retirement to plug a staff shortage expected during the 2012 Olympics.

The combination of the massive security threat posed by the Games, an expected downturn in police numbers following a "recruitment bulge", and increased pressure on specialists has left the force looking to find ways to cover the staffing gap.

Although the 2012 Olympics will be hosted by London, Birmingham is expected to stage events including football matches at Villa Park which would bring tens of thousands of fans to the city.

It is also expected to be a base for one or more countries' training camps, which could pose policing problems, particularly for nations like Israel needing higher levels of security. Birmingham City Council has already arranged a deal to bring the USA track and field team to the city.

Local forces are committed to lending officers to the Metropolitan Police.

West Midlands Chief Constable Sir Paul Scott-Lee said the political tensions surrounding the Olympics could mean local cover might come under pressure as police officers were taken off normal duty.

"The local abstractions will depend to a very great extent on the state of the world and the state of the threat that brings at the time," he told the region's police authority."It will also be affected by which teams choose to domicile themselves in the West Midlands.

"My worry is that middle tier of policing, because part of the time they are doing local policing and part of the time they would be doing big events like the football matches."

But authority member and Wolverhampton councillor Bob Jones said he wanted to know where the funding for the extra policing would come from, and said he was worried there was no police business case yet.